Tag Archives: Italian

Orange Ricotta Dessert Pizzas

orange ricotta dessert pizzas

It shouldn’t be a surprise that I love Italian desserts and pastries. Cannoli, tri-color cookies, zeppole, a biscotti with my coffee. But one of my absolute favorites is sfogliatelle. The delicate layers and laters of pastry are great, but the best part I think is the ricotta filling with a hint of orange. If you haven’t had one of these, find your local Italian shop and hunt one down. Seriously.

orange ricotta dessert pizzas

So for some reason, I’ve been craving this orange ricotta filling like crazy. And while I’d love to spend an entire day learning how to make sfogliatelle myself, let’s be real…no time for that. But I do have time for a little pizza night. Buying the dough at the grocery store or local pizza shop helps cut some corners and let’s you focus on the creative part.

I also thought pizza dough would be a great vehicle for my orange ricotta fix. I made two little pies, both topped with some slices strawberries, one drizzled in honey and the other drizzled in dark chocolate. I couldn’t tell you which one I liked more. Actually, I was so excited about these dessert pizzas that I ate them before my savory dinner pizza. Oops.

tomato pancetta pizza

(In case you were curious, for my savory pizza, I sautéed some pancetta and tomatoes in olive oil and garlic and spooned that over my dough which was already covered in fresh mozzarella slices. After it cooked, I topped it with some fresh spinach. Yum!)

Ok, but on to the highlight…dessert! Now what can I make next to continue satisfying my orange ricotta craving? Send me your ideas!

orange ricotta dessert pizzas

Orange Ricotta Dessert Pizzas

Pizza Dough (of course store bought is totally fine)
Ricotta cheese
Orange for zesting
Sugar
Strawberries for garnish
Honey
Dark Chocolate, melted

In a small bowl, mix ricotta (about 4 oz for two small pizzas), orange zest (however much flavor you want), and about a tablespoon of sugar. Form small pizza rounds, top with ricotta mixture, and bake on a pizza stone at about 400° for 8 minutes. Top with strawberries, another sprinkle of sugar, and drizzle with either honey or dark chocolate.

(Note: These also would be great on a grill, and maybe that way you’d get the charred marks on the dough that I failed to get in my oven.)

Let’s Make Some Pasta

On Christmas Eve, my brothers and I crowd around our granite kitchen counter at home in New Jersey and make pasta. (They weren’t going to do it this year, but thank goodness I was there to make sure it happened.) My mom learned how to make pasta from my Italian Great Grandmother Alma Pinciotti and my mom taught us three. Family, food, tradition, holiday. All the right ingredients to do something great here.

Pasta from the store just isn’t the same as homemade. When you make it yourself, you can taste both the rough and delicate work you put into making it. It’s so fresh that it melts in your mouth. It’s tastes special and it’s one of my favorite things to eat. Even better with my brother’s tomato sauce that’s been simmering all day long. So, let’s make some pasta.

Cupcakes for Breakfast: making homemade pasta
Cupcakes for Breakfast: rolling out homemade pasta Cupcakes for Breakfast: cutting homemade pasta into ribbons Cupcakes for Breakfast: ribbons of homemade pasta Cupcakes for Breakfast: boiling homemade pasta Cupcakes for Breakfast: Christmas homemade pasta

Now wasn’t that fun? Now aren’t you hungry? Thanks to my brothers for indulging in my documenting of this process. Those are my older brother’s hands you see in these pictures. Kneading is a workout. I am lucky to have strong co-chefs. If you couldn’t figure it out from the photos, here’s a basic recipe.

Homemade Pasta

4 cups all purpose flour + extra flour for hands and surfaces
5 eggs
pinch of salt

Make a well in a mound of your flour on a countertop or cutting board. Crack eggs into well. Sprinkle with salt. With a fork, begin whisking the eggs and slowly incorporating the flour into the wet mixture. Form into two balls. (add a little water if you need to to help it form). Keep your hands and surfaces dusted with flour at all times. Knead balls for 5-10 mintes. Cut balls into 6 parts. Roll to the size of a pancake and bring to the pasta machine. Roll out the dough at a #2 setting. Then twice more through the machine at #4 or #5 settings. When dough is the right size for you, roll up the long pieces into logs. Slice with a knife. Unroll each piece. Boil water. Cook for 3 minutes. Toss with your favorite sauce or just butter, olive oil, and parm.

Pasta Fagioli

pasta fagioli soup italian

I’ve had the great opportunity to travel around Italy a couple of times. But way before then, when I was a kid, I really only had two ideas of what Italy looked like. The first was our downstairs bathroom, in which my mom painted to look like a Tuscan landscape. Sitting on the toilet, I always felt like Medici royalty, gazing out of my pink marble veranda onto a field of cyprus trees and fluffy white clouds with gold flecs that shimmered in the “sunlight”. (I really wish I had a photo to show you! I know it would make this post even better. I’ll try to get one eventually.)

The second Italy image I had was from a restaurant in town called Venezia. Similar to our bathroom, the walls of the Italian restaurant were pained tromp l’oeil, with scenes of magical Venice canals peeking through tall stone pink arches.

We went to Venezia often, but I only remember one item of the menu. Every time we went my dad always ordered this one thing: pasta fagioli soup. Piping hot. Everyone around the table always got a slurp or two under the faux twinkling Italian stars. And it was the perfect pairing of taste and setting, even though we were actually in a strip mall in Chester, New Jersey.

Oh, also, I thought that “pasta faazoooole” was probably the most fun thing to say ever.

So it’s been really cold and I’ve been stuck inside a whole lot. How to remedy this? Well Venezia closed many years ago, and I’m far from my parents’ downstairs bathroom. So instead I made my own big batch of pasta fagioli soup, shared it with my older brother and dreamt of traveling back to Tuscany with my family.

I haven’t had much experience making soup, but after making this beauty I wondered why I don’t make soup every week. Not only did it warm me right up, but the combination of the sweetness of the tomato and saltiness of the pancetta totally transported me to the Italian countryside.

On a related note, always, always cook with pancetta. You can’t go wrong.

Pasta Fagioli (adapted from Shutterbean)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 oz. pancetta, minced
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
Bunch of fresh spinach (with the ends removed)
2 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (15oz. canned)
3 oz. (half can) of tomato paste
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning mix
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups (32oz.) chicken stock
1 15oz. can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup dried pasta
Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

In a large pot warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the pancetta, onion and garlic and sauté, stirring until onions are soft. Stir in the spinach and satué until wilted.
Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and generous salt & pepper. Continue to simmer for 20 more minutes or so. Add the beans and chicken stock and simmer for another 30 minutes.
Add the pasta to the soup and simmer until the pasta is tender, about 15 minutes.

Serve hot with some crusty bread and don’t forget to sprinkle on a good amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano! This soup is great for lunch the next day, or can be frozen for later.

Roasting tomatoes

when it’s chilly out and you’re spending the day inside…slow roast some tomatoes. It only takes 5 minutes to prep, and then after a few hours, you’ve got beautiful roasted tomatoes.

I used grape tomatoes from the farmer’s market. Preheat oven to about 225°. Cut tomatoes in half, toss with salt, pepper, and chopped garlic, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for about 3 hours.

These pair well with anything really… I coupled them with some fresh farmer’s market mozzarella and drizzled on some balsamic vinegar. So savory and delicious. And effortless.